James Meyer Sassoon, Baron Sassoon, (born 11 September 1955) is a British businessman and politician. After a career in the financial sector he served in various roles in HM Treasury, the UK's finance ministry, from 2002 to 2008, at which point he began advising David Cameron on financial issues. From May 2010 to January 2013, Sassoon was the first Commercial Secretary to the Treasury and was appointed to the House of Lords as a Conservative. In January 2013, he became an executive director of Jardine Matheson Holdings and of Matheson & Co. He is also a director of Hongkong Land, Dairy Farm and Mandarin Oriental and chairman of the China-Britain Business Council. In November 2017 he was mentioned in the Paradise Papers as one of the beneficiaries of a tax exempt Cayman Island trust fund worth $236 million in 2007 and defended it as being of non UK origin. Sassoon was president of the international Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering 2007–2008. Early life and education Sassoon is a member of the Sassoon family, and was born in London, the son of Hugh Meyer Sassoon (first cousin of Siegfried Sassoon) and Marion (née Schiff); he is the great-great grandson of Sassoon David Sassoon. He was educated at Sunningdale School, a junior boarding independent school in the village of Sunningdale in Berkshire, where he was a friend of David Profumo, the son of John Profumo. Thereafter he attended Eton College, a senior boarding school, also in Berkshire, followed by Christ Church at the University of Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Career Finance In 1977 Sassoon began his career in finance at Thomson McLintock & Company. In 1985, he joined S.G. Warburg & Co. (later UBS Warburg). He became a director in 1995, leading the firm's privatisation business, and from 2000 to 2002 he served as vice-chairman of investment banking. Sassoon served as a director of the following organisations: Partnerships UK, 2002–06; Merchants Trust, 2006–10 (chairman 2010); the ifs School of Finance, 2009–10 (chairman) and the Nuclear Liabilities Fund, 2008–2010. He was a trustee of the National Gallery Trust, 2002–09 and of the British Museum, 2009–10 and 2013–present. Since 2013 he has been a member of the global advisory board of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. In January 2013, he became an executive director of Jardine Matheson Holdings and of Matheson & Co. He is also a director of